Prologue
Four years ago...
For the past three years I’ve attended Taekwondo sessions at Jo’s gym on Thursdays from five to seven. I had first started when I was ten, and now three years later I just got my red belt. According to Jo, the woman who did the sessions, I had just joined when everyone got their new belts so I had to catch up.
I enjoy coming here it helped me greatly to get out of my comfort zone and I don’t really want to stop coming, although I think that someone might be because of that.
Unsurprisingly it’s a boy; I would never admit aloud that I like him. He had started around the same time I did so we was occasionally partnered up as we was learning the same stuff and a crush sort of happened.
We were just finishing off warmups; we had to do this short obstacle a few times. The class was split into three rows four people in each as the instructors stood at the front. There were four instructors, two of them were students who have been here for years and the other two was Jo herself and her husband who co-owned the gym, Jack.
I used to go to the same primary school as her son but as we left after year six the only time I saw Jude was when he was at the gym.
The class consisted a range of people, children from different schools and agaes- although still in a range. The only real friend that I made here and talk outside of the classes was Carly, she sort of took me under her wing and helped me understand techniques.
From the front of the room Jo got everyone’s attention by counting down loudly, as she got down to zero all attention was on her, “Pair up, you’ll be going over a few different techniques.”
I looked around for Carly but saw she was partnered up With Leah, a girl who I silently declared as an enemy.
“Want to partner up?” A voice asked behind me.
I whirled around and saw Jamie smiling at me. I nodded, too scared of what my voice must sound like right now. You’ve probably guessed it, he’s my crush. How could I not like him, his light brown hair was a prefect mess on top of his head and his glasses only made his brown eyes stand out more, sure he had acne but only it’s normal.
He guided us to a space in the back and got into stance, I followed suit. “I’ll try and attack you and you defend yourself.”
“Okay” I smiled shyly.
And after twenty minutes of me failing as I got distracted by the boy in front of me, someone came over to help. The fifteen year-old strolled up towards us, looking between the two of us as Jamie held my fist in his hand.
“Any luck so far guys?” Lewis asked us but looked me in the eyes.
At the same time I answered with a ‘no’ while Jamie said’ yes’. I looked over at him confusingly, how is it luck that I haven’t gotten to try any techniques.
“How about you try the bear hug one?” He asked, while I nodded.
Jamie stepped behind me his arm trapping my arms together tightly, I couldn’t even shrug my shoulders. Lewis could see I was about to give up and intervened. Jamie’s arms dropped around me and I was able to shake them as I got ready once again.
“How about I talk you through it step by step?” I nodded, and I’m guessing Jamie agreed as his arms were trapping me once again and before he could do anything else Lewis stopped him. “Maybe I should do this with Emily so she will understand better.”
His arms fell around me and Lewis took Jamie’s place. Once his arms were wrapped around me I suddenly felt odd, I never felt this way before maybe it was because he’s an instructor and they don’t normally do this with the students but with other instructors.
“Emily, now you got to separate my arms from you” his voice whispered from behind me, “Take a step away from me quickly turning around and throwing two punches.”
I nodded and did as he said, I still had trouble getting out of his hold but I successfully managed it.
I smiled up at him and thanked him; I turned around back to Jamie but saw he was talking to Leah. If I wasn’t stung by the action I would have laughed at the amount of time she stroked his arm or laughed annoyingly loud.
After that session they all seemed to be getting worse as each one went by. I don’t want to be the girl that quits because a guy doesn’t like her but I’ve decided that Jamie would not be the reason. I quit Taekwondo a month after that session and never saw some of the people again
I sighed as I shut my closet door, it’s been four years since I quit and I still haven’t gotten rid of the belts, I got rid of the white clothes as they didn’t fit me anymore.
I grabbed my denim jacket from my bed and ran down the stairs shouting bye to my parents, Lauren is having a get together tonight and it’s been a while since everyone has been together.
I breathed into my hands as I walked to the bus stop.
